d.

As he passed before the padre, the latter reached for the crown and
threw it into the well, saying, "This beseemeth little a tonsured head."
Then he turned to the signora and asked her if she had examined the
fresco just behind them. "It is worth much study," he went on, "for many
reasons. The subject enabled Sodoma to throw more expression into it
than usual. You see, St. Benedict is resisting the temptation his
enemies prepared for him in introducing these beautiful women secretly
into the monastery. Being so completely a man of God, he overcame the
evil one without an effort; but it is not given to us all to overcome as
he did, and a zephyr from the outer world may waft us an evil which must
be atoned for by long penitence in our lonely cells. Not that I liken
you to a tempter," he added, seeing her confusion and distress: "you
have only forgotten that we are servants of God and must think of
nothing but our duty in serving him."

"Oh, padre, I would give everything if I had not forgotten it! You must
think of me as a good woman, for indeed I deserve it."

"I do think of you as such, and am sure the lesson will not be
forgotten," was the crumb of comfort upon which she fed all the rest of
the day and for several days following, during which Fra Lorenzo had not
reappeared. The fountain-scene had not been mentioned to her friends, so
one day at dinner Margaret said, "Do the offices for the dead generally
require so much time, that Lorenzo does not return?"

"Fra Lorenzo is here," was the answer. "He was only absent one night. He
is very much occupied: that is why you do not see him."

The next day they were to be shown the library, and at the hour set the
signora went to the padre's reception-room to see if he were ready. He
was just reaching for the key, when a peasant appeared, his hand
bleeding from a cut which had nearly dissevered the thumb. This
necessitated a delay, and the padre went down with him to the
dispensary. "While you are waiting," he said, "perhaps you would like to
go up into the pavilion, where you can look over the Maremma to the sea.
Go up that stair," and he pointed to the end of a corridor, "to the
first landing, then turn to the left."

As she went up the stair her eye was caught by a carved ceiling at the
top of it. "I suppose I ought to go that far," she thought, and up she
went, until she found herself in a room frescoed with portraits of the
distinguished men of the order. In the